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Author
Topic: Tired of suckling the SSDI Tit (Read 21750 times)

Honey, Matty remembers you very well and he's awfully glad to hear from you. But sweetpea, it might be best to post your issues into your own thread and not worry about the hair-pulling in this thread.

Dan J.

Don't worry about it Dreamer. I know I have it better than some people, but I am ABLE to work now & I want my life as it WAS pre SSDI back. Is that such a bad thing? I am mostly complaining about the LACK of SERVICE by a State of TN Vocational Rehab counsilor that I have been dealing with for over a year. She failed on her part of the Employment Plan that she & I developed. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up & continue working in my bedroom getting cussed out & screamed at over debts that I personally don't give a damn if they pay or not. Getting paid 250.00 for a months work. Just doesn't seem like an option for me anymore. I am the only one that can make changes happen. But I need incouragement to do it. Can anybody HERE do that???

I wish I never started this thread.

Dan J.

To answer some questions:

Yes, she has an office she is the only Voc Rehab counsilor for the county. I have left her multiple voice mails, emails, every form of communication I can use. I quess I will try smoke signals next, nothing else has worked. LOL & I am not going to barge into her office demanding service. There is a proper way to do things & an appointment is the right way to go. This person has nothing to do with the ASO. I am going to talk to my case worker at the ASO (West TN Legal Services) & tell her what my experience With TN Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation has been to see if there is a legal course of action I can take. I have done everything this woman asked me to do when she communicated with me.

That sounds like a good idea. I'd take in copies of all the emails and if you kept a list of everything to present to the person at the ASO. And, I agree that the proper way is to make an appointment once you are able to get ahold of her.

You may want to see if the ASO has any job openings as well. They often work to accommodate people on SSDI so they can retain their benefits.

Keep plugging away, I'm a firm believer that persistence pays off and this other collection job sounds like a stress nightmare for little reward and even less pay.

I don't know the job market in your area, but as another person suggested it might be worth posting your resume on Monster.com and some of the other sites and avoid the bureaucratic red tape all together.

Yes, she has an office she is the only Voc Rehab counsilor for the county. I have left her multiple voice mails, emails, every form of communication I can use. I quess I will try smoke signals next, nothing else has worked. LOL & I am not going to barge into her office demanding service. There is a proper way to do things & an appointment is the right way to go. This person has nothing to do with the ASO. I am going to talk to my case worker at the ASO (West TN Legal Services) & tell her what my experience With TN Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation has been to see if there is a legal course of action I can take. I have done everything this woman asked me to do when she communicated with me.

Dan, If you have all of this documented I think you most certainly should find out who this person's supervisor is and take this up with them. I have always found when I have exhausted all my resources and patience with someone, asking to talk to their supervisor, seems to get the ball moving. One situation I had involved me moving up the ladder 4-5 times, each time asking to speak to a supervisor until the situation was resolved in a satisfactory manner.

Best of Luck,Woods

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"Let us give pubicity to HV/AIDS and not hide it..." "One of the things destroying people with AIDS is the stigma we attach to it." Nelson Mandela

Dan J.

I just called my case worker with the ASO @ West Tennessee Legal Services & ldft a message on her voice mail. Hopefully she will call me back. Hopefully they can help me somehow, someway. I tried again calling the Vocational Rehabilitaiton case worker, left another message:

"Lee Ann, This is Dan J. requesting that you PLEASE return my phone call. I have left MULTIPLE MESSAGES for you & I NEVER seem to get a response from you. I understand you have more clients than MYSELF but I am @ witts end trying to contact you. I want to WORK & get OFF SSDI are you not the person that is PAID to help me acchieve the employment goals that we planned together in March 2006? If I do not hear from you very soon I am going to withdraw my ticket to work from your agency & file a FORMAL compliant about your lack of professinalism & derilection of your dutuies to ME, YOUR CLIENT."

I also sent that to her in an email. So maybe I will get some sort of response. If not, then my next course of action will be to sit down face to face with my ASO case manager to see if West TN Legal Services can assist me in pursuing a legal course of action.

Ihave EVERYTHING documented, emails, when I have called her & all the paper work associated with my case with Vocational Rehab.

Dan,Would it be possible for you to register with a regular employment agency and not deal with government services? Sometimes the employer pays the agency fees. You wouldn't be under any obligation to disclose your HIV status.

I've encountered this sort of ineptitude with so many public agencies. I realize some are overwhelmed, but others are simply inept. I've sat there with them at their desks and watched them confused using voice mail and computers. There are times when it's like encountering dead people.

For those posters who have not interacted much with such things, image a bad dealing with a utility company representative and multiply it times 10.

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"Iíve slept with enough men to know that Iím not gay"

Dan J.

Maybe but employment agencies charge fees to help people find jobs. The ticket to work which has to be assigned to voc rehab would pay those fees, training, transportation & equipment for me to do a job. I have a Ticket to work that is valued at $25,000.00 if I am going to do all this for myself, by myself then I feel I should be paid for doing the work of an incompetent state employee.

Dan J.

I just got off the phone with my ASO case worker, Yolanda @ West TN Legal Services. She said they don't have any funds of job placement all thir funds go to transportation, rental/utility assistance & Dental care that being in a rural area we don't get the funds that the larger cities do & that she can't help me with that. I told her of the situation with TN Vocational Rehab. Yolanda told me that they don't handle cases like that but she would speak to the lawyers @ West TN Legal Services to see whom they can refer me to.

All I can do now is wait. I've done it for a year, whats a few more days, weeks or months.

71 connected calls in an 8 hour shift, without auto-dial is above and beyond what is considered average. When I had a phone staff, I pushed for 60 calls in a day and when an employee met or exceeded that goal, they were rewarded.

Since you are making $220.00 per month, I would assume you are being paid a percentage of collection and not hourly and with no minimum guarantee. There was a time when a person could make an acceptable wage in the telemarketing industry but the industry abused the rights of the people at home and everybody and his/her dog got calls simply because they have a telephone. A few years ago the Federal Trade Commission started the "do not call list" and telemarketers can only call individuals who the employer is currently doing business with, charities, and political candidates.

Government entities such as legal services, support for the disabled and probably every care network known to us are faced with lack of funding and their staff are not normally finding jobs for the disabled. They tend to screen, help with resumes and have endless meetings but the actual placements are done through the private sector. The same openings are often listed with EDD and in the local papers. This gives the potential employer the warm fuzzy feeling that they are helping the disabled when they fully intend to hire a person without a long gap in employment history.

Because of the cost of workers comp insurance permiums, the larger employers are more often hiring long term temps through an agency. The agencies become the employer of record, have the responsibility of paying the insurance costs and the actual employer pays a percentage mark up of anywhere form 20% to 60%.

You have skills, goals and seem to be driven to succeed. I would recommend that you go to one or two of the larger employment agencies, sign up and take all the skills testing they have available. Most employment agencies officially open their doors to the public at 8:00 AM but there is always someone there much earlier in case a client needs a position filled by early that morning. The people who get placed through the agencies first are the ones who call the agency every morning, very early. Employment agencies are commission driven, they get paid the agreed 20% to 60% per person, per hour. They also have a staff who are calling potential client employers and looking for new placement possibilities. They pay every Friday and many of the larger agencies also offer health benefits for long term temps. They also have a temp- to- hire program.

Employment for people living with HIV is a fairly new concept. The government entities are hanging out vouchers, because that is what they are trained to do. Employers are beginning to look at us as having an "invisible disability" but there are challenges. Last year, I spent months going to meetings to plan meetings, to talk about meetings with small government entities... I finally gave up because the small government entites and simply not sophisticated to meet our needs. I ended up opening my own home-based business and am currently kicking butt in sales and production. Our first issue with HIV is staying alive/right to life and now with all the advances in care and treatment, we have a right to expect quality of life as well. Have the best dayMichael

Dan, I really do not know what to tell you... but, my brother-n-law whose 52 recently sold his buisness and he's now applying for employment... college degree, healthy for one at 52 except diabetic... and after 6 months... he is still unemployed.. so could it be your age plus all the other combining that makes it difficult to find employment... age discrimination... health discrimination, also someone convicted of a felony whose served their time also find themselves in difficult situations to gain emploment... it may not be anything associated with hiv? who knows?

Dan J.

Uh... how do you think he's expected to explain away a four year hole on his work history?

Actually I don't have a 4 year hole in my work history. I have worked for the law firm since Jan 04. My problem with the debt collection job is that it just doesn't pay enough for the hours and the stress it causes me. Plus , I work alone @ home. I wish I could go back to the office here in Jackson, but that's never going to happen. I checked my local papers online classified ads today & there is new debt collections company starting up & the are hiring full & part time employees. A part time job there making an hourly wage @ 20 hours a week would be a win-win situation for me. I have already applied online so hopefully I will hear something soon. Having my TN debt collections state licence will help me get in the door above other applicants.

Dan

But I would have to explain why I didn't work from Dec 2002 to Jan 04.

Dan, I live on a lot less than you, 623 from SSI and 123 for food stamps. This is in no way the way I lived up to two years ago, but I can think of a lot of people that have it a lot worse than me. I'm just happy for what I have and hope that I live long enough to collect my SS benefits. Yes, I'm poor and I'm broke, but I'm still happy.

Amen, Rod. I am in the same area as you when it comes to SSDI and the food stamps. I am still left wondering how they equate how much someone should get. I got a gay friend who has been out of work for 3 months, get cash assistance and food stamps but gets more than me with a son? He wants to go to work but due to having seizures they might try to can him. I really don't know all the details on that but still. I get 127 in food stamps and that is suppose to last me til the following month with a 16 yr old living with me. I often wonder what the hell the people at the welfare office has been smoking. Food barely lasts me 2 weeks after getting it and with food prices going up, you don't end up walking out with much no matter where you go to shop. I will not say I am happy cause I'm not. I can't even say I am content, I feel more like I am struggling to survive.

Dan J.

Amen, Rod. I am in the same area as you when it comes to SSDI and the food stamps. I am still left wondering how they equate how much someone should get. I got a gay friend who has been out of work for 3 months, get cash assistance and food stamps but gets more than me with a son? He wants to go to work but due to having seizures they might try to can him. I really don't know all the details on that but still. I get 127 in food stamps and that is suppose to last me til the following month with a 16 yr old living with me. I often wonder what the hell the people at the welfare office has been smoking. Food barely lasts me 2 weeks after getting it and with food prices going up, you don't end up walking out with much no matter where you go to shop. I will not say I am happy cause I'm not. I can't even say I am content, I feel more like I am struggling to survive.

My local ASO provides Food vouchers it's only 35.00 every 3 months but every little bit helps. Check with your ASO & see if they have the same program.

I hope you get the job, sweetie. I can see how bad you want it. My ASO use to give out the vouchers every month $25. My old case manager who died use to give me 2 to get me to come to clinic awhile back. Now the rule is you can't get one unless you go to the local food banks. I need to get up and go, no excuses there. I really don't bother with asking for one anymore.

Dan J.

Baby, If I could give you mine I would, but the voucher is for a local grocery store. I don't use them since I live @ home with the "old folks". I feel I am taking food out of the mouth of someone that needs it more than I do.

Oh boy am I glad I missed the start of this thread. Seems to have stirred up a lot of heat.

Dan J.--hang in there. I am in the same boat as you, and I know that you are right about inept Rehab workers and ASOs.

Sometimes surviving AIDS means you have to take the bull by the horns, and make happen the things you need to have happen. Like making your own job. Looks like that is what you want to do, (because of the telemarkieting gig) but it doesn't seem to be working for you. That's OK--there are other options for self-employment.

Have you thought about getting a website? You could be an Amazon or Ebay reseller, or if you have a particular talent, you could market that and make yourself a mint!! What would make you happy?

I think self-employment works particularly well for those of us with AIDS, because you can set your own hours, and meet your own expectations. No bosses, so not so much stress. Michael (sonomabeach) is doing it; so am I.

Have you heard of the PASS program (through SSA)? They can give you the seed money you need to open your chosen business. It is not just for going back to school. SSA wants you off benefits just as much as you want to be off them!! Just don't give up.

If you want to find out more about PASS, send me a PM with a contact number and a good time to call. It's a little too complex to discuss on a board. You can find my contact info on my website (see my profile).

And as for ASOs, they will always be a disappointment until they are fully staffed by people like us. Only HIV+ people can truly help other people with HIV. Just my (not so humble) opinion.

JR

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It goes like thisThe fourth, the fifth,The minor fall, the major lift,The baffled king composing Hallelujah!

Dan J.

Thank you for the encouragment & the info JR! I think I have read something about PASS somewhere. I will go to the website & check it out. I will send you a PM .

Yep, In an ideal world the infected should be running & working in the ASO's. I have TennCare & there was an article in the monly "Better Health" mailer they send out every month about a training program for participants that are mental health consumers to be peer counsilors for other mental health patients. Wish there was a program like that for HIV.

Dan

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Dan J.

Well, I had an appointment with my new General Practioner today. Actually she was my Dr. 5 years agao when I was working full time & had private insurance. She asked me what my #'s were & if I was working i told her about what I am doing now. She told me I needed to get out of the house & find a job that I enjoy instead of the stress debt collections gig. I aggreed. So, it's REALLY time to start looking. I haven't heard anything from the aplication I put in for the other job, yet. I am going to keep looking & try to move on. Probably something just part time. That way I can keep my medicare coverage & suppliment the disability check with something more reliable than a commision only job. But in an ideal world I would want off SSDI completely & i am checking into the PASS program as J.R. mentioned last night....

Dan(who should be collecting debts, but would rather post here all day)

Dan J.

The Tn Voc Rehab councilor actually called me back today, but all she did was give me vague promises. & that she would have to get back with me... Yeah, right. I ain't gonna hold my breath.

Still no word from the Collections Agency I applied with the other day... Sigh.

Something needs to happen soon. I was informed by the law firm today that I will be needing to buy another desk top because they are replacing the work server to a Vista based system & that my Windows XP Professional desktop will not work with the new system.

Voc Rehab will not buy me another computer, so I will have to spend my own $ for it... Damn it.

WOW, Its been awhile since I have been on here.I have just started the process of the ticket to work program here in Vermont.So far so good.I am working P/T to supliment my income.I am looking into training in the medical field.I have my CNA but want to become a LPN and there are programs here for that.I am not sure if that helps you or not Dan.If your caseworkeer isn't working for you contact the SSA they will light a fire under his/her ass if need be.

Chris

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Love yourself,love life and live.

Dan J.

I have FINALLY spoken directly to my Voc Rehab case manager!!!! I can't BELIEVE IT!!! I told her I was interested in the possibility of starting a Social Security PASS ( Program to Achieve Self Support) http://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/wi/pass.htm but it is complicated to understand the program. I had a brief conversation with a another forum member. He is doing this program. I am in research mode at this point & nothing has been decided on. I will me with a local PASS expert on Monday & he is going to explain the program. I also plan on going by the local Social Security office to see if there is any written material on the subject. I am sure there is...

Either way, I told my case manager that something needs to happen, she agreed. I have been instructed to call her back on Tuesday... Hope she calls me.

Can anyone explain what an Amazon reseller is??? I've tried to find out online, but I can't seem to get a good description.

Can anyone explain what an Amazon reseller is??? I've tried to find out online, but I can't seem to get a good description.

Dan

I'm not quite sure, but I would suspect it has to do with listing USED books on Amazon. If you look up older titles on there for books and CDs you'll generally see used items listed if you look hard enough -- got to click on the "Used" section that is in small print.

Additionally there are also a lot of small businesses that list their inventory on Amazon now for a lot of other non-book/cd titles. Maybe they contract out to others to do the listings (?). Not sure how it all works though.

I have purchased both used books and CDs from Amazon, as many really desirable things are either out-of-print or otherwise unavailable.

Although I don't really know much about the specifics either, I'd guess that the vendor pays a commission to Amazon for the listing and in collecting the money (one pays Amazon, not the individual vendor). This percentage must be mutually advantageous, because it flourishes alongside Amazon's regular inventory.

I miss the dusty old stores, but shopping online is so much easier and more practical, and shipping was very easy.

Brent(Who has rarefied tastes)

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Blessed with brains, talent and gorgeous tits.

The revolutionary smart set reads The Spin Cycle at least once every day.